Samuel Egerton Brydges

Sir Samuel Brydges, Bt
Born	30 November 1762 Wootton, Kent
Died	8 September 1837 (aged 74) Geneva
Occupation	bibliographer, genealogist, Member of Parliament for Maidstone from 1812 to 1818
Nationality	English

Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges, 1st Baronet (30 November 1762 – 8 September 1837) was an English bibliographer and genealogist. He was also Member of Parliament for Maidstone from 1812 to 1818.

Educated at Maidstone Grammar School and The King's School, Canterbury, Brydges was admitted to Queens' College, Cambridge in 1780, though he did not take a degree.^[1] He was called to the bar from the Middle Temple in 1787.^[1] He wrote some novels and poems, now forgotten, but rendered valuable service by his bibliographical publications, Censura Literaria, Titles and Opinions of Old English Books (10 vols. 1805-9), his editions of Edward Phillips's Theatrum Poetarum Anglicanorum (1800) Arthur Collins's Peerage of England (1812), and of many rare Elizabethan authors. He was a founder member of the Roxburghe Club, the publishing club of wealthy bibliophiles.

In 1789, the Chandos barony became dormant. Egerton Brydges attempted to claim the title, initially on behalf on his older brother Revd Edward Tymewell Brydges and then on his own behalf. The litigation lasted from 1790 to 1803 before the claims were rejected, but he continued to style himself per legem terrae Baron Chandos of Sudeley. It seems likely that not only was the claim groundless but that the evidence was forged.

He was made a baronet in 1814. He died at Geneva.

References

1. "Bridges or Brydges, Samuel Egerton (BRGS780SE)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: J. M. Dent & Sons. Wikisource 
• Leigh Rayment's list of baronets
• J. Robins, The British Magazine, or Miscellany of Polite Literature, London, 1823, pp. 145–146.
• The Gentleman's Magazine 162 (1837), pp. 534–539.

External links

• Works by Egerton Brydges at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Egerton Brydges at Internet Archive
• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Samuel Egerton Brydges
• Lee Priory Press
• Archival material relating to Samuel Egerton Brydges listed at the UK National Archives